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Saturday, 23 June 2012

Chocolate Cherry Blossom Wedding Cake and Cake Pops

The wait is over, finally here is my post about THE wedding cake - I've been banging on about it for long enough so it's time to tell you how it all went down. (The photos will be a little all over the place so bear with me)

The cake of course was for my brother and his now wife Hannah. I have to say when they first asked me to do the cake I freaked out. I hadn't made a wedding cake before, what if I mess it up? PRESSURE! But they really wanted me to make it so how could I refuse? After many discussions I was given a picture of something they'd like. Brown fondant with pink cherry blossoms, and for the cake to be chocolate! YAY! I really dislike fruit cake, and haven't made more than one so it's not something I was fully confident in....but chocolate, well, me and chocolate are good friends - no problem.

The months crept closer and I started buying little gadgets to do the flowers and started researching the best cake for a wedding cake and ways to make it not collapse on itself (which did actually the last time I tried to make a big tiered cake). I have to admit even two weeks before I was terrified, but I started making the gumpaste flowers a little early, I realise now I have 6 times too many (better safe than sorry). I made them using a mould I bought a couple of months ago, rolling gumpase in pink petal dust, varying strengths and when they were dry I then shaded them in with some more petal dust.

They also asked for cake pops, my new favourite. I did these before the actual cake as they keep a lot better and were one thing less to worry about. The spone was chocolate maderia and used chocolate buttercream to roll them into balls. As the theme was brown and pink I dipped them in milk chocolate and covered them in pink sugar decorations and gumpaste flowers. I will be doing some more for their wedding party for the guests that couldn't make it so I'll do a proper post then.

As for the actual cake, it was meant to be two tiers but I decided it just didn't look impressive enough - it had to be three! The sponge was chocolate madeira, sturdier than victoria sponge - though I do want to find a way to make it more moist without collapsing - that will be the next project. The bottom two tiers were made up of three layers, sandwhiched and covered in chocolate ganache mixed with buttercream. The fondant was coloured with Dark Brown Sugarflair colouring paste, I again overbought, using only one of the four tubs I bought. As the cake had to be transported down to Lyme where the wedding cake I decided just to cover them in fondant and assemble when we got there.

I found a few great tutorials online about stacking a tiered cake, the answer was obvious, it needed support. Each tier was to be on a cake board that fit the cake exactly - which I found on eBay yay! The cake needed dowling supports in the bottom two tiers, this actually made a lot of sense and no idea why I didn't think of it before. I picked up a few lengths and a little hacksaw from Homebase, I got one thicker length for the middle support and the usual thinner one for the other ones.

So the morning before the wedding came and I was now driving to Lyme on my own (following my brother), I've never driven alone for longer than 45 minutes, Lyme is 4 hours away... So the car was packed, full, cakes were wedged and strapped in covered in protective tins and I taped my 'Cakes On Board' sign to the back window - I was ready as I was ever gonna be. The drive had hideous, scary (nearly taken out by two lorries) and there were accidents happening all around us. The drive should have taken 4 hours but we had two hours of traffic and stopped for lunch, so 6 and a half hours we finally arrived. But in one piece and no damaged cake!

No messing about, not even an hour after arriving we were heading the reception venue to assemble the cake, I made my other brother and his wife comes and help. The venue was Hix Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis, we arrived and the lovely lady owner who lived next door let us use her personal kitchen to assemble the cake. The views were amazing and she told us how it used to be a tea room - I was in heaven. Ever the perfectionist I was doubting of how the cake would love, I could see every little dent in the fondant, however somehow miraculously as I started to put it together it all worked out. The tiers were level, and the flowers and ribbon covered all the the little marks I could see that probably weren't even there to begin with. But about an hour later we stepped back - and it was done! I topped the cake with the little groom and bride I bought at Hobby Craft, and actually, I was happy! Shock horror I know! I was nervous about it all collapsing in the night but you know what? It didn't. I then popped all of the matching cake pops in the little jugs I bought and finally relaxed. Relief! I sent a few pictures to the bride and groom so they knew how it ended up looking, they were thrilled so I couldn't wait for them to see it in person. The wedding was lovely, emotional on many levels and went without any problems (except cake wise the groom fell off! But the lovely lady made up some more icing and stuck him back on - so lovely!) Then venue too was amazing, I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life, I love seafood so it was brilliant. It was great so spend so much time with all my family, and in such a nice location - I officially want to move there.

Well I think I've rambled on for long enough, If you've got this far then congratulations and thanks for staying with me! Until the next essay.

omg the wedding cake is amazing!! Love the cherry blossoms and the cake pops - your brother made the right choice asking you to make the cake. I don't think I could take the pressure!! A colleague recently asked me and I said I can't possibly be responsible for a wedding cake - what if it all goes wrong? Perhaps I should point him in your direction!

Wow, what a great cake, it's perfect! The little pink flowers go so well and and I love the toppers. I can completely relate to your feelings...I made my first wedding cake at the beginning of this month and I was so nervous as you want it to be perfect for the couple's big day!! I bet your brother loved this! :-)

What a beautiful cake! Love your description of making/transporting it, so nice to hear such an honest account of how nerve wracking it was and how much work was involved. Your drive sounds horrendous but love that you have a 'cakes on board' sticker!

Just read this BLOG - it was a bit of a nail-biting adventure story from start to finish wasn't it! I had been wondering how it would work out in practice [as I am sure you were too].You did so well with the drive down too before you even started coping with the assembling. I shall never forget how amazed we were to see it in reality sitting in the 'nice lady's' window on the day!See you on Saturday

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I decided to make this blog that combines my two favourite things, baking and rockabilly plus size fashion! I used to just concentrate on the baking side but after realising half of what I wanted to talk about what my obsession with retro hair, my car and beautiful dresses I thought it'd best to just combine them all! Join me in my obsession with giant cupcakes, quirky cakes, Norwegian bakes (I'm half viking) along with vintage finds, hairstyles, make up and also a ridiculous amount of pictures of my car. Luckily all of these things spill into the other so I hope you enjoy the new posts!